Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator. In response to his question, let me tell you if I am sick or a member of my family is sick, and I look up from that gurney, I want to see the best and brightest physicians in America looking down at me, and I want them to feel they are being rewarded for many years of study and hard work. They are facing frustration today because HMOs are taking away their power to make medical decisions. Second, I believe there are costs of practice, which include malpractice premiums. In my State, they are terrible. The increases in some areas are unbearable and physicians are retiring from practice. I do not believe putting a cap on the monetary recovery of innocent victims of malpractice is the answer. As the Senator from Nevada has alluded, I think the way to approach this is to make sure we help these physicians pay for the malpractice premiums with a tax credit. Let us give them a helping hand. Let us recognize we need to do something about it. I think it is incumbent upon us in the Senate, with a leader who is a medical doctor, Senator Frist, to come together on a bipartisan basis. We can do this. We can have good, affordable health care in America. We can start expanding insurance instead of reducing it. We are not going to have a jobless economic recovery and we are not going to have an economic recovery where people don't have health insurance, and have this country believe we are moving in the right direction.”